Commonwealth Community Baptist Church in the Bronx

A Church with a Love for God and Love for the Bronx

Testimony for Margie

Hi, I’m Margie. I was born in New York City. I grew up an abused child, passed from house to house. Physical, mental and sexual abuse were a big part of my childhood. Throughout my adult life I lived with a man who abused me. I thought this was the way life was.

The man I was living with was also pushing drugs on me and telling me that if I did not do this, he would kill me. I realized one morning this was not the way to live. My son lives in Illinois and I went to visit him at one point. While there my son and I talked. I cried and told him everything I was going through. I finally admitted everything he already knew and had asked about a dozen times.

While visiting my son in early 2010, I received a phone call that the man I was living with had died. Because I was so brainwashed, I cried and mourned this man who treated me so bad. I had known Pastor Marty Silverberg since he was in a storefront church on Westchester Avenue. I would go to church periodically, but the man I was living with did not want me to go to church. After he died I came to Commonwealth Community Baptist Church and poured my heart out to Pastor Marty. He comforted me from the Bible.

One day in my lonely, dark, basement apartment I was crying uncontrollably. I knelt down and asked my heavenly Father to help me, to forgive me, to save me, to come into my life, and to be my Lord and Savior. That was June 2010.

Everything in my life changed then! The man I had lived with did not want me to work. I had no kind of an income, but God provided me with a job. I had no family or friends. God gave me a new family at Commonwealth Community Baptist Church. God even gave me a husband and a new family – his parents.

There is so much I like about Commonwealth Community Baptist Church. I love the teaching and messages Pastor Joel, our new pastor, gives from the Bible. I love the fellowship. I love participating in cooking and cleaning as part of serving my heavenly Father in any way I can.